Loose_Grip/Pete's photos with the keyword: Woodhead

The end of the Line! And what a line it used to be! The Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway, later MSLR/GCR/LNER/BR, Woodhead Route opened through Hadfield in 1845 and was a major trans-Pennine transport link for nearly 140 years. Approved by the LNER pre-war the line was finally electrified by BR at 1500 vDC in 1955. It was the most modern railway in Britain at the time but was unfortunately the only main line using 1.5 kVDC and this system was soon superseded by the later network standard of 25 kV AC. When the infrastructure needed upgrading the decision was made to close the line instead and all traffic between Hadfield and Penistone ceased in 1981. The Manchester commuter lines were eventually upgraded to 25 kV AC and trains still run to Hadfield & Glossop via Dinting Junction. Interestingly the original 70-year old overhead structures have been reused...

A scene which covers over a hundred years of Pennine railway construction history from the opening of the first 3-mile long Woodhead tunnel (right) in 1845 by the MS&LR (later Great Central) to the opening of the new double bore tunnel in 1954 by British Railways (left). Sadly all of it is proper history now since this former important main line closed in 1981.

Dinting Station British Railways. LNER EM2 electric E26055, Prometheus, on a Sheffield to Manchester passenger train on the Woodhead route waits at the west end of the platform, Autumn 1969. The crew wait for the "rightaway" to Manchester Piccadilly in the weak sunshine. Despite being a modern electrified railway the Woodhead closed completely in 1981. One nameplate from this engine was sold in December 2002 for £10200. The nameplate is not obvious in this view but the small oval 1953 Gorton Works, Manchester, maker's plate can be seen on the cabside. The rail glimpsed in the bottom left is the line to Glossop. The current limit of the truncated Great Central/LNER Woodhead route is to the east of Dinting.

Sidings just east of Guide Bridge station on the Great Central Woodhead Route from Manchester to Sheffield in May 1968. EM1 electric E26014 waits to leave the up sidings. A line of at least 3 stabled electrics can be seen behind. This photo was taken from the footplate of British Railways 9F 92118 (curve of the tender bottom left-thought about cropping it but would have excluded other locos) while en route from Heaton Mersey shed in Stockport to Newton Heath steam shed in north Manchester. Our train was made up of the 9F and 2 Stanier 8Fs.